Last hurdle

By Kath Gannaway
THE announcement by Racing Victoria last week that jumps racing would be banned from 2011 will have little direct negative impact on the Yarra Valley Racing Centre at Yarra Glen.
YVRC CEO Brett Shambrook said on Monday the centre runs only two or three races a year and at an industry level, there were no jumps trainers or jockeys working out of the valley.
“The jumps jockeys do ride track work for trainers at other venues and those horses come here and race, so there will be impacts felt across the industry,” he said.
The YVRC was drawn into the debate on jumps racing in April this year when five-year-old gelding Hanging Rock was destroyed after falling at the last hurdle and breaking a leg.
The incident happened before a crowd largely made up of families attending the Thanks Mate community day and added weight to calls from the RSPCA and anti-jumps lobby groups to ban the practice.
Mr Shambrook said at the time the board would look at more prominently advertising at the venue when a jumps race was included in a meeting, but with no events scheduled for the 2010 season, it may be a moot point.
He did not rule out jumps racing in the event the decision by Racing Victoria was overturned, however.
Mr Shambrook said while YVRC was happy to go with the umpire’s decision, others in the industry were not. Country Racing Victoria hit out at the decision, saying it had diluted industry faith in the peak racing body.
CRV chairman Michael Caveny said Racing Victoria had gone against its charter in banning a part of the industry which had a 150-year history and effectively ended the livelihood of many industry participants.
“Kowtowing to the politically correct and looney left is not in their charter,” Mr Caveny said.
Racing Victoria will hold its annual general meeting at Yarra Glen on Thursday, with two new members taking up positions.
Australian Jumping Racing Association president Rodney Rae is reported as saying he would ask the new RVL board to revisit the decision after that meeting.